we have hagel of course getting past some committee yesterday. are republicans offering up a robust enough opposition to whatever the president puts forward? >> well, it's always a challenge when it comes to a president's team, whether it be his direct staff or in those key positions like the department of defense, or the treasury, and it was very shrewd on the part of the broader strategy of this president in his second term, an attempt to divide republicans to put them on the defensive, nominating a republican like chuck hagel, even though he had his own issues within the republican party over the years, ones that we grappled with when i was in the white house but to the public at large, here is the president offering a republican nominee to be the secretary of defense. that's very difficult for republicans to fight back against, and that's why it was a shrewd political move, whether he's the right person for the job, that's a different question but from a political standpoint, the white house has been smart and shrewd about the types of nomine